Friday, July 12, 2013

018 - Conseil National des Francais Musulmans - Deccani

Conseil National des Francais MusulmansConseil National des Francais Musulmans (CNFM).Founded in France in 1969 and governed by the Law of Associations of July 1, 1901.The CNFM was reformed in 1992 and now consists of 190 associations with 14,000 members.Its council includes 40 members, many of which are presidents of the most important affiliated associations.

There are approximately 2.5 million French Muslims, most of whom are harkis and their children.Harkis are Muslim soldiers who fought in the French army during the Algerian war of independence and left Algeria to live in France at the war’s end in 1962.

The council acts as a lobby and is generally not directly engaged in politics.Although French Muslims have civil rights equal to those of other French citizens, the council seeks the end of social and economic discrimination against Muslims in France and the full integration of Muslims into French society.It obtains assistance for them in housing, education, and welfare, and it opposes xenophobia, racism, and anti-Semitism.The council militates in favor of “French Islamic institutions” that the government would acknowledge as equal to those of the Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faiths.To this end, it has asked for the appointment of an imam as an army chaplain and for the reservation of areas within cemeteries for the burial of Muslims.

A branch of the council, the Convention Nationale des Musulmans Francais, which is more politically engaged, militates also for national and economic integration and seeks the creation of Islamic colleges and universities directed by French Muslims.Hoping as well for a change in the December 1905 law that has mandated a strict separation of religion from public life, it prefers the less rigid “concordat” system that had prevailed in Alsace-Lorraine since 1918.

It is the Conseil National that had been satisfied by a middle path.At the instigation of the French government, a Conseil Consultatif des Musulmans de France (Consultative Council of Muslims of France) under the presidency of Dr. Dalil Boubaker, the new chancellor of Paris’s mosque since the departure for Algeria of Shaykh Haddam Tidjani, was created in November 1993.

The new chancellor is a French Muslim, deputy chairman of the ‘Ulama’ Conference and of the Habous (Religious Endowers) Society from 1987 to 1992.He is the son of the rector of Paris’s mosque, Si Hamza Boubaker (1957-1982), and his appointment was denounced by the Federation Nationale des Musulmans de France (FNMF) as nepotistic (although in reality it is because of his nationality).Indeed the institution of the Consultative Council under Boubaker’s aegis has the purpose to promote a “French Islam” and its worship, to oppose all “foreign extremism,” and to be a representative structure of Islam and a mediator between the government and the Muslims in France.

The CNFM’s president is among the twenty-five members, which also includes the leaders of several other organizations, such as the Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (UOIF), Union des Etudiants Islamiques (Muslim Students’ Association), Union des Veterans de France de Confession Islamique (French Muslim Veterans’ Union), Connaire l’Islam (Knowledge of Islam), Tabligh (Faith and Religious Observance), and the rectors of the most important towns.This institution seems to make obsolete the CORIF (Conseil Religieux de l’Islam en France), created in 1990 by the French government.The FNMF has no share in the new council.CNFM see Conseil National des Francais Musulmans

Conservative JewsConservative Jews. Orientation in Judaism, growing mainly out of Ashkenazi environments in Germany in the 19th century.Their orientation lies in the middle between Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism.The Conservative Jews claim that the long tradition of studying the religion is an indication that Judaism must be interpreted according to the context of the society and time.They allow some adjustments of Judaism to modern times and lifestyles, but are concerned about preserving the central values of Judaism.The sacredness of the Sabbath is preserved.The dietary laws are respected and observed, but modified compared to traditional Judaism, and they are conscious about learning Hebrew.

Nevertheless, the Conservative Jews believe that the laws of the Torah and Talmud have divine origins, and hence that Jewish law must be the fundament of a Jew’s life.However, the Conservative Jews also realize that there is a human element to it, that there can be influences from other cultures.They believe that the Will of God has been revealed at numerous occasions, and that the revelation of the Will of God on top of Mount Sinai is the strongest and clearest.They believe that divine revelations can occur even today.

Conservative Judaism began with the German Jew Zacharias Franckel who protested against Reform Judaism, which he thought went too far in modernizing the religion.In 1845, Franckel founded Conservative Judaism after a series of Reform conferences in Germany.Franckel thought that elements of traditional Judaism had to be investigated, and that elements of the Written Law (the Torah -- the first five books of the Old Testament) and the Oral Law (codified in the Mishnah and interpreted in the Talmud) that had been defined for a specific period of time should be reformed, but nothing more.

Conservative Judaism is not really a homogeneous orientation, but more of a theological coalition of several orientations.The same applies to rituals, where there also are different rules for the different schools.The conservative movement is today very much occupied with whether or not new generations will live as true conservative Jews or not.The background for this concern is that many appear to believe that all they have to do is to belong to conservative synagogue, and not adhere to the many regulations.

Conservative Judaism has also been active in politics, especially in the Zionist movement from the end of the nineteenth century.

In 1985, news was made when Conservative Judaism began ordaining women rabbis for the first time.

Conservative Judaism (also known as Masorti Judaism outside of the United States) is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.

Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism, developed in 1850s Germany as a reaction to the more liberal religious positions taken by Reform Judaism. The term conservative was meant to signify that Jews should attempt to conserve Jewish tradition, rather than reform or abandon it, and does not imply the movement's adherents are politically conservative. Because of this potential for confusion, a number of Conservative Rabbis have proposed renaming the movement, and outside of the United States and Canada, in many countries including Israel and the United Kingdom, it is today known as Masorti Judaism (Hebrew for "Traditional").

In the United States and Canada, the term Conservative, as applied, does not always indicate that a congregation is affliliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the movement's central institution and the one to which the term, without qualifier, usually refers. Rather, it is sometimes employed by unaffiliated groups to indicate a range of beliefs and practices more liberal than what is affirmed by the Orthodox, and more traditional than the more liberal Jewish denominations (Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism). The moniker Conservadox is sometimes employed to refer to the right wing of this spectrum, although "Traditional" is used as well (as in the Union for Traditional Judaism).

The Conservative-Masorti movement is unified on a global level by Masorti Olami, representing affiliated congregations in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Masorti Olami unites a number of smaller national and regional organizations, including:

* The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) in the United States and Canada,* The Assembly of Masorti Synagogues in the United Kingdom,* Masorti Europe in Europe,* Masorti AmLat in Latin America,

The international association of Conservative/Masorti Rabbis is known as the Rabbinical Assembly; the Cantor's Assembly is the organization of chazanim. The global youth movement is known as NOAM (an acronym for No'ar Masorti); its North American chapter is called the United Synagogue Youth. The movement maintains numerous Rabbinical seminnaries and other educational institutions.

Constantine the AfricanConstantine the African (Constantinus Africanus) (c.1020-1087).First person to introduce Arab medicine into Europe.Born in Tunisia, he infused new life in the medical school of Salerno, where he translated into Latin the best works of Arab medicine which had appeared up to his time.

Born in Carthage or Sicily, Constantine was a native of Carthage, then under Arab rule. As a Christian he had a good knowledge of Latin, enabling him to translate medical works into that language from Arabic. He was invited to join the Schola Medica Salernitana by Alfano I, Archbishop of Salerno c.1065 in order to aid in the translation of various Arabic manuscripts. His translations helped reintroduce Greek medicine to Western Europe. He also adapted popular Arabic handbooks for travellers in his book Viaticum. The twentieth chapter of the first book of that work deals with the subject of love.

Constantine knew Greek, Latin, Arabic, and several other languages, acquired during his extensive travels in Syria, India, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Persia. Constantine studied at the University of Salerno, which was Western Europe's first organized medical school. Later, he entered the Monte Cassino, the monastery founded by St. Benedict in 529 near Cassino, Principality of Benevento. He died there in 1087.

The first of his works of translation from Arabic to Latin was the Complete Book of the Medical Art, from the kitab al-malaki (Royal Book) of the 10th-century Persian physician 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas, in 1087. This text was the first comprehensive Arabic medical text. Shortly after, the work came to be known as the Pantegni, “complete art”. The significance of this text was that it was an important resource for the student of the transmission of scientific ideas inasmuch as the Complete Book of the Medical Art contains a compilation of 128 known manuscripts. This text also contains a survey of the 108 known Latin manuscripts of Constantine the African. This text rapidly became part of the standard medical curriculum for students.

Constantine's 37 translated books from Arabic to Latin introduced knowledge of Greek and Arabic medicine to the West. Among them were two treatises by Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, or Isaac the Jew, the greatest Jewish physician of the Western Caliphate of Córdoba, whose translations of Hippocrates and Galen first gave Western Europe a view of Greek medicine as a whole.Constantinus Africanus see Constantine the AfricanAfricanus, Constantinus see Constantine the African

Coptic CatholicsCoptic Catholics.Members of the Coptic Catholic Church, a semi-autonomous Christian church in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, through the arrangement of the Eastern Rite.Even several centuries before a branch of the Coptic Church joined the Roman Catholic Church, there were Roman Catholics in Egypt.These had importance for the eventual conversion of the church, as they were a bridge to many groups and individuals in the Coptic Church.The Church’s center is in Alexandria, while there are dioceses in Al Minya, Assyut, Sohag, Luxor and Ismailia.Most of the Coptic Catholics live in the middle of Egypt, around the cities with dioceses.

There are no monasteries in the Coptic Catholic Church, in stark contrast to the Coptic Orthodox Church, as well as the Roman Catholic Church.At the end of the twentieth century of the Christian calendar, there were approximately 200,000 Coptic Catholics in Egypt.

The early history of Coptic Catholics is linked with the Coptic Church.However, in 1443, a Coptic delegation signed an agreement creating a union between the Coptic Church and the Roman Catholic Church.The agreement is known as the Cantate Domino, and it was signed at the Council of Florence.But this attempt at union was not supported by the Coptic leaders in Egypt, so none of the plans were implemented.

In 1630, a Capuchin mission was established in Cairo, and in 1675, the Jesuits began their missionary activity in Egypt.

In 1741, the Bishop of Jerusalem, Athanasius, became a Catholic, and converted his bishopric of 2,000 adherents into a Catholic one.Nevertheless, Athanasius’ church would retain much of its Coptic character and independence.Athanasius would later return to the Orthodox Coptic branch, but the Catholic congregation was continued.

In 1829, for the first time, the Ottoman authorities allowed the Coptic Catholics to build their own churches.

In 1893, ten churches located in Egypt were given to the Coptic Catholics by the Franciscans.In 1895, the Coptic Catholics were divided into three dioceses.

In 1899, the patriarch of Alexandria was appointed, although he resided in Cairo.

In 1908, after the Patriarch Vicar Bishop Cyril initiated the introduction of certain Latin rites, a controversy broke out between the Coptic Catholics.As a result, the seat of the Patriarch was left open for almost 40 years.

In 1947, a new patriarch of Alexandria was elected.

CoptsCopts.People within the Egyptian population who consider themselves the true descendants of the ancient Egyptians.However, such a consideration is only viable when the infusion of Nubians, Greeks, Jews and Romans in ancient times is overlooked.The Copts are distinguished by their Christian beliefs (Coptic religion, but also some Catholic and Protestant).There are few, if any, physical differences between Copts and Egyptians in general, but Copts can be spotted by their wearing a cross around their necks, having a cross tattooed on their wrists, or by their Christian names.While exact figures are difficult to find, it is estimated that they make up slightly less than ten percent of the total Egyptian population.Cities with large Coptic communities are Cairo and Assyut.

The term "Copts" more precisely refers to members of the Coptic Church.The Coptic Church is, by far, the largest Christian group in Egypt as well as in North Africa and Southwest Asia.According to government figures, there were about two million Copts in Egypt at the end of the twentieth century of the Christian calendar.However, most scholars believe this number to be an underestimation because many Copts did not register their religious affiliation in official papers out of fear of discrimination.Most scholars estimate that the Copts actually make up slightly less than ten percent of the total Egyptian population, or about six million people.

The name “Copt” comes from the Greek "Aigyptos" by way of the Arabic "qubt".The Coptic Church is sometimes applied to the Ethiopian Church but the Ethiopian Church actually declared itself independent from the Egyptian branch in 1959 and today the Ethiopian Church does not accept the term “Coptic.”

The Coptic Church is headed by the “pope and patriarch of Alexandria, Pentapolis and Ethiopia” who, as of the year 2000, resided in Cairo.The selection of the pope is done by election by both clergy and laity from three nominees.There are presently twelve monasteries in Egypt, with around 600 monks.In six convents, there are around 300 nuns.The largest monastery, and most famous, is at Wadi Natrun.

In its early history, the Egyptian Church was of great importance to the development of Christianity.Clement of the second century and Origen of the third century were some of the most central Christian personalities of their time.The first Christian convent was formed inside the Egyptian Church.

The Coptic liturgy was based on the Greek rite of Alexandria, but developed from the fourth century its own distinct characteristics.This development happened mainly in the monasteries.In modern times, it is performed in both Coptic and Arabic.

The Coptic Church’s relations with the governments of Egypt have sometimes been difficult, but today there is not much difference in the way the government treats the Copts compared to its treatment of Muslims.However, the Copts have recently faced attacks from militant Islamists of Egypt, and consequently, there has been some emigration of the Copts.

The Coptic Church has been active in talks with other small churches, and has also found a platform for solving theological differences with the Eastern Orthodox Church.This is important because throughout their history there have been many situations where disagreements came from verbal differences between the two churches.

A brief history of the Coptic Church reads as follows:

According to Coptic traditions, the Egyptian Church was formed by the evangelist Mark during the first century of the Christian calendar.This tradition is not generally supported by historians who believe that the Coptic Church had its origins in the Jewish community of Alexandria.However, at this time, there are no reliable sources which document how Christianity first came to be in Egypt.

During the third century of the Christian calendar, ascetic Christians began forming small self-serving communities out in the desert.From this developed the monastery system.

During the fourth and fifth centuries, a debate was waged inside the church on the question of the quality of Jesus as to whether he was man or God… as to whether he was of one or two natures … as to whether he was human and/or divine.

In 451, a large group of the Egyptian Christians did not accept the decrees of Chalcedon which decreed that Jesus was both man and God, but as one.The Egyptian Christians supported the Monophysite (one nature) hypothesis, and it was this group that developed into the church later known as Coptic.

In 641, because of oppression perpetrated by the Christian leaders of the Byzantine Empire, the Egyptian Christians did little to prevent the Arab Muslim invasion of Egypt.

During the seventh and eighth centuries, the number of Christians in Egypt started to decline, mainly due to conversions to Islam.Indeed, by the ninth century of the Christian calendar, Muslims came to outnumber Christians in Egypt.

In 1443, a Coptic delegation signed an agreement creating a union between the Coptic Church and the Roman Catholic Church.The agreement is known as the Cantate Domino and it was signed at the Council of Florence.However, this agreement was not supported by the Coptic leaders in Egypt, so none of the provisions of the agreement were implemented.

In 1971, Shenouda III was elected the Pope of Alexandria.Ten years later, he was placed under house arrest by the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.In 1985, Shenouda was allowed to return to office.

In 1997, a wave of attacks on Copts by militant Islamists occurred.

According to ancient tradition, Christianity was introduced to the Egyptians by Saint Mark in Alexandria, shortly after the ascension of Christ and during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius around 42 C.C. The legacy that Saint Mark left in Egypt was a considerable Christian community in Alexandria. From Alexandria, Christianity spread throughout Egypt within half a century of Saint Mark's arrival in Alexandria, as is clear from a fragment of the Gospel of John, written in Coptic, which was found in Upper Egypt and can be dated to the first half of the second century, and the New Testament writings found in Oxyrhynchus, in Middle Egypt, which date around the year 200 C.C. In the second century, Christianity began to spread to the rural areas, and scriptures were translated into the local language, today known as the Coptic language (which was called the Egyptian language at the time). By the beginning of the 3rd century of the Christian calendar, Christians constituted the majority of Egypt’s population, and the Church of Alexandria was recognized as one of Christendom's four Apostolic Sees, second in honor only to the Church of Rome. The Church of Alexandria is therefore the oldest church in Africa.

The Egyptians contributed immensely to the formation of the worldwide Christian mind. For example, the Catechetical School of Alexandria was the oldest catechetical school in the world. Founded around 190 C.C. by the scholar Pantanaeus, the school of Alexandria became an important institution of religious learning, where students were taught by scholars such as Athenagoras, Clement, Didymus, and the great Origen, who was considered the father of theology and who was also active in the field of commentary and comparative Biblical studies. However, the scope of this school was not limited to theological subjects; science, mathematics and humanities were also taught there. The question and answer method of commentary began there, and 15 centuries before Braille, wood-carving techniques were in use there by blind scholars to read and write.

Another major contribution made by the Egyptians to Christianity was the creation and organization of monasticism. The most prominent figures of the monastic movement were Anthony the Great, Paul of Thebes, Macarius the Great, Shenouda the Archimandrite and Pachomius the Cenobite. By the end of the fifth century, there were hundreds of monasteries, and thousands of cells and caves scattered throughout the Egyptian desert. Worldwide Christian monasticism stems, either directly or indirectly, from the Egyptian example. Thus, Saint Basil the Great Archbishop of Caesarea Mazaca, and the founder and organizer of the monastic movement in Asia Minor, visited Egypt around 357 C.C. and his monastic rules are followed by the Eastern Orthodox Churches; Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, came to Egypt while en route to Jerusalem around 400 C.C. and left details of his experiences in his letters; and Saint Benedict founded the Benedictine Order in the sixth century on the model of Saint Pachomius, although in a stricter form. Countless pilgrims have visited the Egyptian Desert Fathers to emulate their spiritual, disciplined lives.

The Egyptians also played a major role in the first three Ecumenical councils. Thus, the Council of Nicaea (325 C.C.) was presided over by Pope Alexander of Alexandria, along with Saint Hosius of Córdoba. In addition, the most prominent figure of the council was the future Pope of Alexandria, Athanasius, who played the major role in the formulation of the Nicene Creed, recited today in all Christian churches of different denominations. One of the council's decisions was to entrust the Pope of Alexandria with calculating and annually announcing the exact date of Easter to the rest of the Christian churches. The Council of Constantinople (381 C.C.) was presided over by Pope Timothy of Alexandria, while the Council of Ephesus (431 C.C.) was presided over by Pope Cyril of Alexandria. Undoubtedly, the fact that the first three Ecumenical councils in the history of Christianity were headed by Egyptian patriarchs attested to the major contributions that the See of Alexandria contributed to the establishment of early Christian theology and dogma.

In 451, following the Council of Chalcedon, the Church of Alexandria was divided into two branches. Those who accepted the terms of the Council became known as Chalcedonians or Melkites. Those who did not abide by the Council's terms were labeled non-Chalcedonians or Monophysites (and later Jacobites after Jacob Baradaeus). The non-Chalcedonians, however, rejected the term Monophysites as erroneous and insisted on being called Miaphysites. The majority of the Egyptians belonged to the Miaphysite branch, which led to their persecution by the Byzantines in Egypt.

In 641, Egypt was invaded by the Arabs who faced off with the Byzantine army, but found little to no resistance from the native Egyptian population. Local resistance by the Egyptians, however, began to materialize shortly thereafter and would last until at least the ninth century.

The Arabs imposed a special tax, known as jizya, on the Christians who acquired the status of dhimmis, and all native Egyptians were prohibited from joining the army. Egyptian converts to Islam in turn were relegated to the status of mawali. Heavy taxation was one of the reasons behind Egyptian organized resistance against the new occupying power, as well as the decline of the number of Christians in Egypt. The Arabs' oppression of the Egyptians led the latter to mount several armed rebellions against the Arabs, some of which, such as that of the Beshumurians in the Delta were successful.

The Arabs in the 7th century seldom used the term Egyptian, and used instead the term Copt to describe the people of Egypt. Thus, Egyptians became known as Copts, and the non-Chalcedonian Egyptian Church became known as the Coptic Church. The Chalcedonian Church remained known as the Melkite Church. In their own native language, Egyptians referred to themselves as rem-en-kimi, which translates into "those of Egypt". Religious life remained largely undisturbed following the Arab occupation, as evidence by the rich output of Coptic arts in monastic centers in Old Cairo (Fustat) and throughout Egypt. Conditions, however, worsened shortly after that, and in the eighth and ninth centuries, during the period of the great national resistance against the Arabs, Muslim rulers banned the use of human forms in art (taking advantage of an iconoclastic conflict in Byzantium) and consequently destroyed many Coptic paintings and frescoes in churches.

The Fatimid period of Islamic rule in Egypt was tolerant with the exception of the violent persecutions of caliph Al-Hakim. The Fatimid rulers employed Copts in the government and participated in Coptic and local Egyptian feasts. Major renovation and reconstruction of churches and monasteries were also undertaken. Coptic arts flourished, reaching new heights in Middle and Upper Egypt. Persecution of Egyptian Christians, however, reached a peak in the early Mameluke period following the Crusader wars. Many forced conversions of Christians took place. Monasteries were occasionally raided and destroyed by marauding Bedouin, but were rebuilt and reopened.

The position of the Copts did not begin to improve until the rule of Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century, who abolished the jizya and allowed Egyptians (Copts as well as Muslims) to enroll in the army. Conditions continued to improve throughout the nineteenth century under the leadership of the great reformer Pope Cyril IV, and in the first half of the twentieth century (known as the Golden Age by the Copts) during Egypt's liberal period. Copts participated in the Egyptian national movement for independence and occupied many influential positions. Two significant cultural achievements include the founding of the Coptic Museum in 1910 and the Higher Institute of Coptic Studies in 1954. Some prominent Coptic thinkers from this period are Salama Moussa, Louis Awad and Secretary General of the Wafd Party Makram Ebeid. Following the 1952 coup d'état by the Free Officers, the conditions of the Copts have been slowly deteriorating and their human rights are often violated.

In 1952, Nasser led some army officers in a coup d'état against King Farouk, which overthrew the Kingdom of Egypt and established a republic. Nasser's mainstream policy was pan-Arab nationalism and socialism. The Copts were severely affected by Nasser's nationalization policies because, although they represented about twenty percent (20%) of the population, they were so economically prosperous as to have held more than fifty percent (50%) of the country's wealth. In addition, Nasser's pan-Arab policies undermined the Copts' strong attachment to and sense of self about their Egyptian pre-Arab, and certainly non-Arab, identity. As a result, many Copts left their country for Australia, North America or Europe.

Today, members of the non-Chalcedonian Coptic Orthodox Church constitute the majority of the Egyptian Christian population. Mainly through emigration and partly through European, American, and other missionary work and conversions, the Egyptian Christian community now also includes other Christian denominations such as Protestants (known in Arabic as Evangelicals), Roman and Eastern Rite Catholics, and other Orthodox congregations. The term Coptic remains exclusive however to the Egyptian natives, as opposed to the Christians of non-Egyptian origins. Some Protestant churches for instance are called "Coptic Evangelical Church", thus helping differentiate their native Egyptian congregations from churches attended by non-Egyptian immigrant communities such as Europeans or Americans.

Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Coptic Christians, being the largest religious minority in Egypt, are also negatively affected. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'état led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles and restrictions in building new churches. These restrictions do not apply for building mosques.

The Coptic community has been targeted by hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks, in which Muslims and Christians were involved in bloody inter-religious clashes following a dispute between a Muslim and a Christian.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali is a Copt who served as Egypt's acting foreign minister twice under President Anwar Sadat (1977 and 1978 - 1979). Although Boutros Boutros-Ghali later became the United Nations Secretary-General, his appointment as an only acting foreign minister depicted Egypt's systematic elimination of Copts from all governmental influential positions.

While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, as of 2011, Egyptians were able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who converted to Christianity faced difficulties in getting new identity papers and some were even arrested for allegedly forging such documents.

Many Copts are internationally renowned. Some of the most well known Copts include Boutros Boutros-Ghali the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations, Magdi Yacoub an internationally renowned heart surgeon, Hani Azer, a world leading civil engineer, and Fayez Sarofim, one of the richest men in America and the world.

CossackCossack (Qazaq) (Kazak) (Kazakh).The term “Cossack” refers to the horse soldiers of southern Russia.The term “Cossack” also referred to members of a Persian brigade trained and chiefly officered by Russian Cossacks up to 1921.In the Turkish language, the term originally meant independent or vagabond.Under the Timurids, it signified the pretenders in contrast to the actual rulers.It also began to be applied to nomad groups which separated from their prince and kinsmen and thus came into conflict with the state.The word became the name of a political unit and later an ethnic designation for the Ozbegs who migrated to northeastern Turkestan and gave their name to present day Kazakhstan.In the seventeenth century, the Kalmuks forced some groups to make an approach to Russia and to accept Russian supremacy.

Cossacks are members of a people dwelling in the northern hinterlands of the Black and Caspian seas. They had a tradition of independence and finally received privileges from the Russian government in return for military services. Originally (in the 15th century) the term referred to semi-independent Tatar groups, which formed in the Dnieper region; the term was also applied (by the end of the 15th century) to peasants who had fled from serfdom in Poland, Lithuania, and Muscovy to the Dnieper and Don regions, where they established free, self-governing military communities. In the 16th century there were six major Cossack hosts: the Don, the Greben (in Caucasia), the Yaik (on the middle Ural River), the Volga, the Dnieper, and the Zaporozhian (mainly west of the Dnieper).

Polish kings in the early 16th century began to organize the Zaporozhian Cossacks into military colonies to protect Poland’s borders. Throughout the 16th century and the first half of the 17th, these Cossacks retained their political autonomy, briefly forming a semi-independent state under Bohdan Khmelnytsky (c. 1649). However, threatened by Polish domination, the Zaporozhian Cossacks signed a treaty with Russia in 1654, under which their autonomy was to be respected. The Russians likewise used the Cossacks first as defenders of the Russian frontier and later as advance guards for the territorial extension of the Russian Empire. Internally, the Cossacks regained a greater degree of their cherished liberties under the Russians than they had known under the Poles. The Russian throne reserved the right to approve Cossacks’ negotiations with the Poles and the Turks, the peoples with whom Russian relations were the most sensitive. Otherwise the chief ruler, or hetman (ataman), of the Cossack army had a free hand in foreign policy. Thus, in exchange for some military obligations, the Cossacks had restored some of their autonomy—in the short term. Over the years, however, Russia increasingly came to dominate the Cossacks.

Under the Russian umbrella, the Cossacks expanded eastward from their home in the Don and were early colonizers of Siberia. By the end of the 19th century the number of Cossack groups had expanded to 11, including the Don, Kuban, Terek, Orenburg, and Ussuri Cossacks.

When their privileges were threatened, the Cossacks revolted, their most famous rebel leaders of the 17th and 18th centuries being Stenka Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, and Yemelyan Pugachov. As a result, they gradually lost their autonomous status. By the late 18th century, all Cossack males were required to serve in the Russian army for 20 years; and, although each Cossack village (stanitsa) continued to elect its own assembly, the hetman was appointed by the central government. The Cossacks’ social structure, which had traditionally been based on equality and communal landholding, deteriorated, particularly after 1869, when Cossack officers and civil servants were allowed to own land privately and rent it to outsiders.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Russians used Cossacks extensively to suppress revolutionary activities. The Cossack sense of being a separate and elite community gave them a strong sense of loyalty to the Tsarist government and Cossack units were frequently used to suppress domestic disorder, especially during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Imperial Government depended heavily on the perceived reliability of the Cossacks, although by the early 20th century their separate communities and semi-feudal military service were increasingly being seen as obsolete. In strictly military terms the Cossacks were not highly regarded by the Russian Army Command, who saw them as less well disciplined, trained and mounted than the hussars, dragoons and lancers of the regular cavalry. The Cossack qualities of initiative and rough-riding skills were not always fully appreciated. As a result, Cossack units were frequently broken up into small detachments for use as scouts, messengers or picturesque escorts.

During the February Revolution of 1917, the Cossacks appear to have shared the general disillusionment with Tsarist leadership and the Cossack regiments in Saint Petersburg joined the uprising. While only a few units were involved, their defection (and that of the Konvoi) came as a stunning psychological blow to the Government of Nicholas II and sped his abdication.

At the end of the 19th century, the Cossack communities enjoyed a privileged tax-free status in the Russian Empire, although having a military service commitment of twenty years (reduced to eighteen years from 1909). Only five years had to be spent in full time service, the remainder of the commitment being spent with the reserves. In the beginning of the twentieth century Russian Cossacks counted 4.5 million and were organized into separate regional Hosts, each comprising a number of regiments.

In the Russian Civil War that followed the October Revolution, the Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict. Many officers and experienced Cossacks fought for the White Army, and some for the Red Army. Following the defeat of the White Army, a policy of Decossackization (Raskazachivaniye) took place on the surviving Cossacks and their homelands since they were viewed as potential threat to the new regime. This mostly involved dividing their territory amongst other divisions and giving it to new autonomous republics of minorities, and then actively encouraging settlement of these territories with those peoples. This was especially true for the Terek Cossacks land. During 1919 and 1920, out of a population of approximately 3 million, the Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Cossacks", including 45 thousand Terek Cossacks. The Cossack homelands were often very fertile, and during the collectivization campaign many Cossacks shared the fate of kulaks. The Soviet famine of 1932-1933 hit the Don and Kuban territory the hardest. Nevertheless, in 1936, under pressure from former Cossack descendants, it was decided to reintroduce Cossack forces into the Red Army.

During the Second World War, Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict once again. While most historians agree that the majority of the Russian Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army, a substantial number of them also served with the Nazis. This can be explained by harsh repressions that many of them suffered under the collectivization and Decossackization policies pursued by Joseph Stalin. Like other peoples of the Soviet Union, who suffered persecution under Stalin, many Cossacks dreaming of autonomy greeted the advancing German army as liberators.

While the core of the Nazi collaborators was made up of former White Army refugees, many rank-and-file Cossacks defected from the Red Army to join the German armed forces (Wehrmacht). As early as 1941, the first Cossack detachments, created out of prisoners of war, defectors and volunteers, were formed under German leadership. The Dubrovski Battalion formed of Don Cossacks in December 1941 was reorganized on July 30, 1942 into the Pavlov Regiment, numbering up to 350 men. The Cossacks were successfully utilized for anti-partisan activity in the rear of the German army.

The Cossack National Movement of Liberation was set in the hope of creating an independent Cossack state, Cossackia. It was not until 1943 that the 1st Cossack Division was formed under the command of General Helmuth von Pannwitz, where Cossack emigrees took leading positions. The 2nd Cossack Division, formed in 1944, existed only for a year, as both Cossack divisions were transferred into the Waffen-SS and merged into the XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps in 1945. The Corps contained regiments of different Cossack groups: Don, Kuban, Terek and Siberian Cossacks. At the end of the war in 1945, they surrendered to the British Army in Allied-administered Austria, hoping to join the British to fight Communism. There was little sympathy at the time for a group who were seen as Nazi collaborators and who were reported to have committed atrocities against resistance fighters in Eastern Europe. They were accordingly handed over to the Soviet Government. At the end of the war, British commanders repatriated between 40 to 50 thousand Cossacks, including their families, to the Soviet Union. An unknown number were subsequently executed or imprisoned. Reportedly, many of those punished had never been Soviet citizens. This episode is widely known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks.

The majority of the Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army on the Southern theater of the Eastern Front, where open steppes made them ideal for frontal patrols and logistics. A Cossack detachment marched in Red Square during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945.

Following the war, Cossack units, along with cavalry in general, were rendered obsolete and released from the Soviet Army. In the post-war years many Cossack descendants were thought of as simple peasants, and those who lived inside an autonomous republic usually gave way to the particular minority and migrated elsewhere (notably, to the Baltic region).

In the Perestroika-enlightened Soviet Union of the late 1980s, many successors of the Cossacks became enthusiastic about reviving their national traditions. In 1988 the Soviet Union passed a law which allowed formation of former hosts and the creation of new ones. The ataman of the largest was granted Marshal rank and the right to form a new host. The Cossacks took an active part in many of the conflicts that took place afterwards: the War of Transnistria, the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, the Kosovo War, the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War.

At the same time, many attempts were made to increase the Cossack impact on Russian society and throughout the 1990s many regional authorities agreed to hand over some local administration and policing duties to the Cossacks. However in April 2005, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia introduced a bill "On the State Service of the Russian Cossacks" (O gosudarstvennoy sluzhbe rossiyskogo kazachestva) to the State Duma, which was passed at the first reading on May 18, 2005. For the first time in decades the Cossacks were recognized as not only a distinct ethno-cultural entity but also as a potent military force.Qazaq see CossackKazak see CossackKazakh see Cossack

CubanidsCubanids (Chupanids).Term refers to the family of Mongol amirs in Persia, who served the Il-Khans between 1289 and 1343.They were overcome by Hasan Buzurg, the founder of the Jalayrids.Chupanids see Cubanids

Cumhuriyet Halk PartisiCumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP) (Republican People’s Party) (CHP).Major political organization in Turkey for sixty years.The CHP was founded some weeks before the proclamation of the Republic on September 11, 1923.After the military coup of 1980, its activities were stopped together with those of other political parties by the junta.It was formally terminated on October 16, 1982, by decision of the National Security Council.

The CHP held dictatorial single party rule until 1946 and continued in power under a multi-party system until 1950, when it lost in the free general elections.Following the military intervention of 1960, the CHP led several coalition governments (three during 1961-1965 and one in 1974) and again became the major partner in a coalition during 1978-1979.The present SHP (Social Democratic People’s Party) and DSP (Democratic Leftist Party) are to some extent heirs to the CHP legacy.Upon the granting of permission to reopen previously banned political parties in 1992, a new CHP was established.However, it is just another pretender to the heritage, rather than being the original resurrected.

The CHP was in many ways a continuation of the Union and Progress (Young Turk) Party that ruled from the last decade of the Ottoman Empire until the defeat in World War I.It had originally grown out of the Defense of Rights Association for Anatolia and Rumelia (DRAAR), created at the Sivas Congress in autumn 1919 against the Greek invasion.Its ideology was that of Ottoman patriotism and Islamism rather than Turkish nationalism.It aimed at preserving the offices of the caliphate and the sultanate, securing the integrity of the Ottoman motherland, and safeguarding national independence.In the absence of a widespread national consciousness, it rallied the people through religion.Indeed, according to the statutes of the association, all Muslim citizens were considered to be its “natural” members.

The DRAAR was transformed into the Grand National Assembly (GNA) early in the war, and a First Group was formed in the assembly to secure party discipline.After the military victory, Mustafa Kemal Pasha Ataturk, the leader of the nationalist struggle, who was both commander-in-chief and the president of the GNA as well as the head of the First Group, reorganized the latter into a political party, utilizing the slogan “Popular Sovereignty”.He called this the People’s Party.

The CHP was initially only a parliamentary party, but it soon began to expand into the provinces, purging any potential opponents.(Yet it did not open branches in the eastern provinces with their Kurdish majority until the 1940s.)The party unconditionally obeyed Ataturk’s charismatic authority and assimilated his modernization program, which rested on a positivistic worldview and pursued strategies resembling those of enlightened despotisms of eighteenth century Europe.The abolition of the caliphate in 1924 gave rise to a Kurdish rebellion in the east and initiated virtual one-man rule by Ataturk with the adoption of a Maintenance of Order Act.

Republicanism, populism, nationalism and laicism became the main principles of the CHP in 1927.Four years later two more principles, statism and reformism, were added.Various sociopolitical reforms were carried out under them, ranging from changes in headgear and dress to the adoption of Western laws and the Latin alphabet – all moves in the direction of secularism.

The identification of the party with the state occurred in 1936-1937.The minister of internal affairs became the general secretary of the party, and governed the provincial heads of local CHP organizations.The monopolistic state apparatus could not tolerate the existence of a distinct party structure apart from itself.

Under Ismet Inonu, the second president of the Republic and the CHP, the party underwent an important change.It became a “democratic” opposition party after losing in the freely held general elections of 1950.Thereafter it polled around a third of the votes cast in each election.Beginning in the mid-1960s, it became further radicalized and adopted a left-of-center course.

In 1971, the army brought down the AP government of Süleyman Demirel. The secretary general of CHP Bülent Ecevit protested military intervention and resigned from his post. He also criticized İnönü for not protesting the intervention. By his quick and energetic reactions, he gained support from the intellectuals and in 1972 , he succeeded İsmet İnönü as the leader of the party. Following some interim governments CHP won 33% of the vote in the 1973 elections and formed a coalition with National Salvation Party (MSP) of Necmettin Erbakan. Bülent Ecevit began to take on a distinct left wing role in politics and, although remaining staunchly nationalist, tried to implement socialism into the ideology of CHP. The support of the party also increased after Turkish intervention in Cyprus following a coup which had been staged by the Cypriot National Guard led by Nikos Sampson.

CHP and MSP had very divergent ideologies, especially on secularity and, in 1975, a new coalition government led by Süleyman Demirel was formed by four parties. Nevertheless, CHP was still the most popular party. CHP won 41% of the vote in the 1977 elections, which was a record in CHP history. However, the CHP could not gain the majority of seats and from 1977 to 1979, the CHP was the main party of two brief coalition governments. Nevertheless, in 1980, the AP returned with Demirel. The political switching between the CHP and the AP came to an end when the military performed a coup and banned all political parties.

After the 1980 military coup, the name of "Republican People's Party" and the abbreviation CHP was banned from use by the military regime. Until 1998, Turkey was ruled by the center right Motherland Party (ANAP) and the True Path Party (DYP), unofficial successors of the Democrat Party.

CHP followers also tried to establish parties. However, they were not allowed to use the name CHP and were not allowed to elect the well known names of pre-1980 politicians to party posts. So they had to introduce new politicians. The three parties of CHP followers were: Halkçı Parti (Populist Party, HP) of Necdet Calp, Sosyal Demokrasi Partisi (Social Democratic Party, SODEP) of Erdal İnönü and Demokratik Sol Parti (Democratic Left Party, DSP) of Rahşan Ecevit. But even these new names were chosen to remind people of CHP. Necdet Calp was İsmet İnönü’s secretary when İnönü was prime minister. Erdal İnönü (internationally known pyhsicist ) was İsmet İnönü’s son and Rahşan Ecevit was Bülent Ecevit’s wife. The ban on pre-1980 politicians was lifted in 1987 and on pre-1980 parties was lifted in 1992. Both of these normalization steps were largely due to Erdal İnönü’s efforts. He also tried to unify the three parties; but he was only partially successful.

CHP was re-established after the 1987 referendum and legislation in 1993 which allowed the re-establishment of older parties.

In 1991, since Turkey's election system had two large election thresholds (10% nationwide and 15% local thresholds) and since center-left was divided into two parties (SHP and DSP), social democrats and democratic left groups had little power in the parliament. Between 1991 and 1995, Turkey was ruled by the coalition of center-right DYP and center-left SHP (Social Democratic Populist Party) (later SHP joined CHP). The political coalitions which ruled Turkey from the center right ANAP and DYP were making the country increasingly unstable. The Islamists returned with a new party, the Fazilet (which was also later banned) while MHP, the far right nationalist party, had begun to take advantage of the disillusionment felt by former supporters of the Refah Party and the ever bickering ANAP and DYP.

In 1995, the Islamic Welfare Party (Refah Partisi) swept into Parliament, and the CHP seemed to have been deserted by the Turkish people, having only 10% nationwide support and only 49 deputies out of 550.However, the Welfare Party was banned in 1998, and during the 1990s the Democratic Left Party (DSP), led by former CHP leader Bülent Ecevit, gained popular support. (The Democratic Left Party was established by Ecevit family in 1985.) In 1998, after the resignation of the RP-DYP coalition following the "February 28" post-modern and soft military coup, center-right ANAP formed a coalition government with center-left DSP and the small center-right party DTP (Democratic Turkey Party), along with the support of CHP.

However, due to big scandals, corruption and some illegal actions of this coalition, CHP withdrew its support from the coalition and helped bring down the government with a "no confidence" vote. Just before the elections of 1999, DSP formed an interim minority government with the support of DYP and ANAP; and the terrorist PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured in Kenya under the Ecevit rule.

Thus, in the elections of 1999, CHP failed to pass the 10% threshold (8.7% vote), winning no seats in Parliament. Baykal resigned in 1999, Altan Öymen became the leader. But 1 year later, Baykal became the leader of the party again.

About a month after the general elections of 1999, a coalition government between DSP-MHP and ANAP was formed under the leadership of DSP. This government passed many important laws, including banking reform, unemployment insurance, a law to ensure the autonomy of the Central Bank, qualified industrial zones, tender law, employment incentive law, to name a few. The government also changed 34 articles of the Constitution to widen fundamental rights and freedoms, and did this with the approval of all the parties in Parliament. Turkey became a candidate country to the European Union (without any political preconditions and with equal treatment as all other candidate countries). Three major EU packages were passed during this government, including the most comprehensive package of August 3, 2002, which included the removal of the death penalty and many changes in fundamental rights and freedoms. An economic crisis which resulted from long overdue problems from previous governments caused a drop in the currency in February 2001. But 2 months later, the government passed a series of very comprehensive economic reforms which enabled the high growth of 2002-2007.

Because DSP was staunchly opposed to the invasion of Iraq by the US, a campaign to divide the DSP and force a change of government in Turkey was started. When its coalition partner MHP called for early elections in the summer of 2002, ıt was forced to enter early elections before the results of the wide economic reforms could be felt. As a result, none of the coalition parties were able to pass the 10% national threshold.

In the 2002 Parliamentary elections, the CHP won 178 seats in Parliament, and only it and the AKP (Justice and Development Party) entered Parliament. The CHP became the main opposition party again and Turkey's second largest party. It had begun the long road to recovery.

It must be understood however, that this had very little to do with voters supporting CHP. Many were former DSP supporters who were angry at the economic crisis that many blamed on the Ecevit government. Also many DSP and ANAP supporters left these parties for AKP as did many MHP and Fazilet (now Saadet party) members.

After the General Election of 2002, the CHP was racked by internal power struggles, and was outclassed by the AKP government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In the local elections of 2004, its overall share of the vote held, largely through mopping up anti-Erdoğan votes among former supporters of smaller left-wing and secular right-wing parties.However, it was badly beaten by the AKP across the country, losing former strongholds such as Antalya.

Much of the blame was put on the leader of the CHP, Deniz Baykal. After the local elections, the CHP was racked by defections of several key members of the party all claiming a lack of democratic structure within the party and the increasingly-authoritarian way in which Deniz Baykal ran the party.

In October 2004, the New Turkey Party (Yeni Türkiye Partisi, YTP) merged into the CHP.

In order to present a strong alternative to the AKP in the 2007 national elections, the DSP made a sacrifice and entered the elections together with the CHP. The CHP and DSP alliance received 20.9% of the votes and entered the Parliament with 112 Members of Parliament.

During the 2009 local elections, the party tried to attract the conservative and devout Muslims to the party by allowing women who wore the chador to become party members including promises to introduce Qur'an courses if requested in every district. However, the allowing of women wearing hijab into the party was received with a severe blow when a normally-non-headscarved member of CHP (Kıymet Özgür) committed a provocation by wearing a black hijab and trying to get into an election bus in Istanbul. The incident raised questions about CHP's initiatives in favor of religious freedoms. The new initiatives introduced were surprising inside and outside the party, including amongst the military leaders, which the party itself is a major defender of Kemalist principles.

DaddahDaddah (Moktar Ould Daddah) (December 25, 1924 - October 14, 2003). First president of Mauritania (r.1960-1978).Moktar Ould Daddah was born into an eminent Berber family and received his education in St. Louis, Senegal, at the school for sons of chiefs and the school for interpreters.

After working as an interpreter, Daddah attended law school in Paris.Returning home he was elected to the territorial assembly in 1957.When France granted increased powers to the assembly, Daddah was elected president of the new executive council, the equivalent of prime minister.

In 1958, Mauritanians voted for autonomy within the French community.Two years later, the territory was granted total independence, and Daddah became its first president.

Daddah’s main concerns were to exploit Mauritania’s considerable copper and iron ore wealth, and to keep peace between Mauritania’s Berber and Indigenous African citizens.At first, Daddah’s policy was to identify Mauritania with neither north Africa nor black Africa.However, in later years, Daddah opted for the north.

Daddah broke relations with the United States over the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and made Arabic an official language (along with French) the following year.

When Spain abandoned its Western Sahara colony in 1975, Daddah went to war against both Morocco and Saharan nationalists for the territory.The war proved unpopular within Mauritania -- both to the Berbers, many of whom had kinship ties with the enemy, and to black Africans who feared an increase in the Berber majority.Moreover, Mauritania’s economy could ill afford the war.

On July 10, 1978, Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Ould Salek ousted Daddah in a military coup, and installed a junta to rule the country in his place. His successors would surrender Mauritania's claims to Western Sahara and withdraw from the war the following year.

After a period of imprisonment, Ould Daddah was allowed to go into exile in France in August 1979, where he organized an opposition group, the Alliance pour une Mauritanie Democratique (AMD) in 1980. Attempts to overthrow the regime from abroad were unsuccessful. Ould Daddah was allowed to return to Mauritania on July 17, 2001, but died soon after, following a long illness, in Paris on October 14, 2003. His body was subsequently flown back to Mauritania, where it was buried.Moktar Ould Daddah see Daddah

Daeng ParaniDaeng Parani (d. dirca 1726).Bugis prince from Bone, Sulawesi (Indonesia). Eldest of a group of five brothers who in the early eighteenth century sailed west with their followers to make their fortunes.Daringly seizing opportunities offered by the fluid political situations in the Malay states, they all attained high rank. His brothers were Daeng Marewa, the first Bugis raja muda of Johor; Daeng Cellak, who succeeded the latter in 1728; Daeng Menambon, who became pangeran mas seri negara ofMempawah; and Daeng Kumasi, who became pangeran mankubumi of Sambas.Daeng Parani, after helping to establish Bugis settlements in Selangor and Riau, was killed in Kedah, where the Bugis intervened in a civil war.The story of the brothers is told in the Bugis chronicle Tuhfat al Nafis.

Daeng Parani (died ca. 1726) was one of the five Bugis brothers from Makassar, Sulawesi who established political dominance over the royal houses of Peninsular Malaysia. Daeng Parani became personally embroiled in the politics of the Johor Sultanate in the early 18th century.Daeng Parani was the eldest among five sons of Daing Rilaka and Upu Tenribong.His four other brothers being Daeng Menambun, Daeng Marewah, Daeng Chelak and Daeng Kemasi. As a youth, Daeng Parani was said to have hooked up with a concubine of the Raja of Boni, during which he killed a Macassar prince and hence forcing his entire family to resettle in Riau.

Daeng Parani agreed to assist a Minangkabau prince, Raja Kechil, in overthrowing Sultan Abdul Jalil IV, the Bendahara (viceroy) who had taken power after Sultan Mahmud Shah II died without an official heir. Kechil claimed to be Mahmud's posthumous son. In 1717, however, Kechil attacked Riau without Daeng Parani, and claimed the throne. Abdul Jalil IV's son, Sulaiman Badrul Alam Shah, then sought the help of Daeng Parani and his Bugis warriors. They joined with Sulaiman and defeated Kechil in 1722. Sulaiman installed Daeng Parani's brother, Daeng Merewah, as Yam Tuan Muda (crown prince). Under this arrangement, the Bugis were the actual power behind the throne of Johor.

Daeng Parani was killed about 1726 in Kedah. His descendants through Tun Abdul Jamal (a maternal grandson of Daeng Parani), son of Bendahara Tun Abbas, gradually became the rulers of Johor during the 19th century.

Daeng Parani was married to Tengku Tengah, a daughter of Sultan Abdul Jalil IV.Parani, Daeng see Daeng ParaniDaing Parani see Daeng Parani

DaghestanisDaghestanis.Daghestan (literally, “Land of Mountains”), located in the far eastern reaches of the Great Caucasian Chain, is one of, if not the most, ethnically heterogeneous regions on earth.The inhabitants are known collectively as Daghestanis.They are considered to be among the most conservative Muslim, anti-Russian peoples in Russia.They remain, along with the ethnically, culturally and linguistically related Chechens, among the least modernized, educated and Russified peoples of Russia.With only a few minor exceptions, all of the Daghestani peoples were Sunni Muslims of the Shafi school.

The spread of Islam into Daghestan, however, was a slow and arduous process.It was first introduced by Arab conquerors between the eighth and thirteenth centuries.At that time, the traditionalist religion of the Daghestanis was still entrenched, and Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity had already been spreading.In the fifteenth century, Islam was re-introduced from the south by the Persians (mainly among the Lezgins and southern Daghestanis), and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from the north by the Golden Horde.Many pre-Islamic beliefs and traditions, however, persisted.Among the more important of these were the worship of local and clan deities, pilgrimages to holy sites and the important local system of governance, the common law, adat.The final Islamization of Daghestan came in the nineteenth century.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, as a result of the growing hostility between the Caucasian mountaineers and the Russians and of the alliances formed between the rulers of the local khanates with the Russian government, the Daghestani mountaineers became fertile ground for the spread of Sufism, primarily the Naqshbandiyya order.The tariqa opposed Russian infidel rule and the perceived corruption of the local feudal lords.Although feudalism had taken hold in highland Daghestsan (being introduced by the Kumyk and Azeri in the lowlands) it had only limited power in the highlands, and these feudal khanates never succeeded in subduing the majority of the mountaineers.Sufism reached its peak in the mid-nineteenth century under the leadership of Imam Shamil, an Avar who declared Daghestan an independent country in 1834.Conservative Islam and the sharia (Quranic law) were further instituted, and a major campaign was mounted to eliminate the pre-Islamic holdovers.The movement succeeded in making Sufism an important element in Daghestan, whose basis was to shield the local Muslims from infidel influence.For 25 years, Shamil fought the Russians and their allies.He surrendered in 1858 and later died in Mecca.

After the defeat of Shamil, the majority of Circassians, Abaza, Abkhaz, Karachai and Nogai, as well as the surviving members of the Ubykh nationality, emigrated to the Ottoman Empire.Few Daghestanis or Chechens, on the other hand, emigrated.They remained and continued a long struggle against the Russians, and later the Soviets.Among the Daghestanis and the Chechens, the Sufi orders became active in these resistance movements.Hostility continued into the 1980s as these peoples viewed the officially sanctioned leaders of Islam in the Soviet Union as stooges of the regime.

The conservative Islamic nature of the Daghestanis, their violent anti-Russian attitudes and their great ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity created for the Soviets a difficult task in organizing and Sovietizing this region.At the time of the Russian Revolution, the majority of Daghestanis demanded the unification not only of Daghestan but of the entire Muslim North Caucausus region into one Islamic state with Arabic as the official language.

In an attempt to win over the Muslim North Caucasians, the Soviets established the United Mountaineer Republic in 1918.This territory was formally incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Mountain Autonomous Republic.Arabic was the official language.The move was opposed by the majority of the North Caucasians, and they continued to revolt well into the late 1920s.

The oldest records about the region of Dagestan refer to the state of Caucasian Albania in the south, with its capital at Derbent and other important centers at Chola, Toprakh Qala, and Urtseki. The northern parts were held by a confederation of pagan tribes. In the first few centuries of the Christian calendar, Caucasian Albania continued to rule over what is present day Azerbaijan and the area occupied by the present day Lezghians. It was fought over in classical times by Rome and the Persian Sassanids and was early converted to Christianity.

In the fifth century of the Christian calendar, the Sassanids gained the upper hand and constructed a strong citadel at Derbent, known thereafter as the Caspian Gates, while the northern part of Dagestan was overrun by the Huns, followed by the Caucasian Avars. It is not clear whether the latter were instrumental in the rise of the Christian kingdom in Central Dagestan highlands. Known as Sarir, this Avar-dominated state maintained a precarious existence in the shadow of Khazaria and the Caliphate until the ninth century, when it managed to assert its supremacy in the region.

In 664, the Persians were succeeded in Derbent by the Arabs who clashed with the Khazars over control of Dagestan. Although the local population rose against the Arabs of Derbent in 905 and 913, Islam was eventually adopted in urban centers, such as Samandar and Kubachi (Zerechgeran), from where it steadily penetrated into the highlands. By the 15th century, Albanian Christianity had died away, leaving a tenth-century church at Datuna as the sole monument to its existence.

Due to Muslim pressure and internal disunity, Sarir disintegrated in the early twelfth century, giving way to the Khanate of Avaristan, a long-lived Muslim state which relied on the alliance with the Golden Horde and braved the devastating Mongol invasions of 1222 and 1239, followed by Tamerlane's raid in 1389.

As the Mongol authority gradually eroded, new centers of power emerged in Kaitagi and Tarki. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, legal traditions were codified, mountainous communities (djamaats) obtained a considerable degree of autonomy, while the Kumyk potentates (shamhals) asked for the Tsar's protection. Russians intensified their hold in the region in the eighteenth century, when Peter the Great annexed maritime Dagestan in the course of the First Russo-Persian War. Although the territories were returned to Persia in 1735, the next bout of hostilities resulted in the Russian capture of Derbent in 1796.

The eighteenth century also saw the resurgence of the Khanate of Avaristan, which managed to repulse the attacks of Nadir Shah of Persia and impose tribute on Shirvan and Georgia. In 1803 the khanate voluntarily submitted to Russian authority, but it took Persia a decade to recognize all of Dagestan as the Russian possession (Treaty of Gulistan).

The Russian administration, however, disappointed and embittered the highlanders. The institution of heavy taxation, coupled with the expropriation of estates and the construction of fortresses (including Makhachkala), electrified highlanders into rising under the aegis of the Muslim Imamate of Dagestan, led by Ghazi Mohammed (1828–32), Gamzat-bek (1832–34) and Shamil (1834–59). This Caucasian War raged until 1864, when Shamil was captured and the Khanate of Avaristan was abolished.

Dagestan and Chechnya profited from the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, to rise against Imperial Russia for the last time. During the Russian Civil War, the region became part of the short-lived Republic of the Mountaineers of the North Caucasus. After more than three years of fighting White movement reactionaries and local nationalists, the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed on January 20, 1921. Nevertheless, Stalin's industrialization largely bypassed Dagestan and the economy stagnated, making the republic the poorest region in Russia.

In 1999, a group of Muslim fundamentalists from Chechnya under Shamil Basayev, together with local converts and exiles from the 1998 uprising attempt, staged an abortive insurrection in Dagestan in which hundreds of combatants and civilians died. Russian forces subsequently reinvaded Chechnya later that year.

Since 2000, Dagestan has been the venue of a low-level guerilla war, bleeding over from Chechnya; the fighting has claimed the lives of hundreds of federal servicemen and officials – mostly members of local police forces – as well as many Dagestani national rebels and civilians.

More recently, among other incidents:

* In early 2005, government forces surrounded a group of five rebels in a two-story house on the outskirts of Makhachkala. The rebels battled the authorities for seventeen hours, killing one of Russia's elite Alpha Group commandos and wounding another, until armored vehicles and a helicopter blew apart most of the house and its neighbour. All the rebels were killed.* In the weeks preceding the battle, insurgents had derailed two trains, sabotaged gas supplies and shot dead a high-ranking intelligence officer from Moscow, as well as a local police chief. A month later, Major General Magomed Omarov, the deputy interior minister, was assassinated in Makhachkala.* On July 1, 2005, eleven Russian MVD OSNAZ troops were killed and seven wounded in the capital when their trucks were bombed.* On August 20, 2005, a remote-controlled bomb killed at least three police officers and wounded several more on a downtown street in the Makhachkala. The bomb detonated as a foot patrol walked past a grove of trees.* On March 22, 2006, a group of assailants fatally shot the chief administrator of the Botlikh district of Dagestan during a fierce gun battle in Makhachkala.* On August 27, 2006, three police officers and four suspected militants were killed during a two-hour gun fight in Makhachkala.* On May 14, 2007, police said three rebels were killed and three police commandos wounded in a fierce firefight on Sheikh Mansur Street in Khasavyurt.* On May 15, 2008, two MVD officers were killed and one police officer heavily wounded during an ambush on their vehicle in Gubden.* On September 8, 2008, Abdul Madzhid and two rebels were killed along with ten Russian special commandos in a firefight in southern Dagestan.* On October 21, 2008, rebels ambushed a Russian military truck, killing five troops and wounding nine others.

DaglarcaDaglarca (Fazil Husnu Daglarca)(August 26, 1914, Istanbul - October 16, 2008, Istanbul).Prolific Turkish poets of the republican Turkey with more than 60 collections of his poems published as of 2007, laureate of the Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Award .

Daglarca purist use of the Turkish language brought a new dimension to contemporary Turkish literature. His poems treat themes such as the prehistory of mankind and the cosmos, but also anti-militarist themes and the Turkish War of Independence.

Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca died on October 16, 2008 in İstanbul. He was laid to rest at the Karacaahmet Cemetery on October 20, 2008 following a funeral ceremony held in the Süreyya Opera House that was attended by politicians and high-ranked officers.

DajuDaju.According to the oral traditions of the Daju, they appear to be one of the oldest communities of western Sudan and eastern Chad, their story beginning at least in the thirteenth century of the Christian calendar.Accounts of their origins are many and diverse, but through all of the accounts there runs a common theme showing Daju to have traditions of independent rule, warfare with neighbors and syncretistic Islam.

Daju were Muslims by the fifteenth century, and probably much earlier.They are Sunni and follow the Maliki school, as do most Muslims in central Africa.They quote one noted Maliki scholar, Sidi Khalil, with reverence, although they use as juridical guidance Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani’s Risala, a compendium of dogma and Islamic law according to Maliki rite.

The Daju practice of Islam reflects their pagan past.When Ahmed el Dagj crossed the Darfur border into Chad in the fifteenth century, he noted that the Guadiens (Daju) were still fetishists.While the Daju today are Muslims and accept the “Five Pillars of the Faith,” they are somewhat slack in observance.There are few mosques in Daju country; Friday prayer is not attended by everyone, and the Daju make various accommodations to fasting and giving alms.Few have been to Mecca, and above all, the Daju daily ignore the prohibition against fermented beverages; merisa (millet beer) is their national drink.

The Daju have singular pride in their past glories in warfare.Their oral traditions remind them that they once ruled central Darfur before the Tunjur in the sixteenth century.Quarrelsome and adventurous, the Daju, if one is to believe a legend largely spread by the Daju themselves, took part in all the conquests and battles in Syria, Iraq, Armenia and Asia Minor.They also claim to have helped invade Egypt and Nubia, all stories that have never been proved.

What has been established, however, is that the Daju, Fur, Wadaians and Arabs were constantly at war with each other.Records show that the Daju-Sila fought in Dar Sinyar, Dar Fongoro and against the Arabs in Darfur, that they joined their neighbors in opposing the Mahdi, that they fought the Masalit and confronted the French.Following a period of peace after the “entente cordial” between the French and the British, the Daju again went to battle between 1939 and 1945.The Sultan of Sila, Brahim ould Mustafa, served in a marching battalion in Chad against the Germans and Italians.

Since independence, the Daju have remained involved in conflict.It was at Nyala, Sudan, in the heart of Daju country, on June 6, 1966, that the National Liberation Front (for Chad) was formed.The Daju were there and participated in battles fought for control of the country.

Guadiens see Daju.

Dan FodioDan Fodio (Uthman dan Fodio) (Usuman dan Fodio) (Usman dan Fodio) (Usman ibn Fodio) (Uthman Dan Fuduye) (c.1754-1817). Nigerian religious leader and reformer.Shaykh ‘Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Uthman ibn Salih, known to the the Hausas as Shehu Usuman Dan Fodio, was born into a family of Muslim Fulani clerics in the Hausa kingdom of Gobir in present day northern Nigeria.The family had abandoned the nomadic way of life several generations earlier and was dedicated to the teaching of Sunni, Maliki Islam.By the end of the eighteenth century, Shehu Usuman Dan Fodio had inspired the Muslim Fulani to begin the jihad al-qawl (“preaching jihad”) addressed to the Hausa aristocracy of Gobir and its neighbors.This aristocracy, nominally Muslim, was in the Fulani view polytheistic, given to “mixed Islam,” maintaining animist practices while at the same time adopting elements of Islam.Such mixed Islam was common in the aftermath of the collapse of the medieval Islamic empires of the Sahel.

The preaching jihad, which extended over several years, demanded the political and cultural surrender of this faintly Muslim, largely animist establishment to the strictly orthodox practice of Sunni, Maliki Islam.This the Hausa refused.In an escalating climate of tension, hostilities broke out between the Muslim Fulani and the Hausa in 1804.Shehu Usuman, adopting certain precedents from the struggle of the Prophet Muhammad against the polytheists of Mecca, solemnly elevated this conflict to the status of a “holy war of the sword” that must necessarily follow the “preaching jihad” when the latter fails to be effective.

The campaign was conducted not by the Shehu himself, a scholarly and somewhat reclusive mystic, but by his brother Shaykh ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad, an equally scholarly but hardheaded legalist who proved himself a brilliant field commander.He was enthusiastic about the Sufi mysticism espoused by his brother Shehu Usuman and more inclined to the strict construction of the shari‘ah.

The jihad was successful.The “Sokoto caliphate,” a centralist Islamic polity to which provincial jihadist emirs owed allegiance, took the place of the hodgepodge of Hausa principalities that had preceded it.While the Islamic shari‘ah cannot be said to have been imposed on this polity with total conformity – much pagan practice did survive – its writ was nevertheless substantial.By the time the British occupied Nigeria early in the twentieth century, there was no doubt that what they took over was a Muslim society governed by shari‘ah law.

The jihad had two other immediate consequences.First, it transformed Islam from a tolerated minority religion into the official religion of the state.Second, it elevated the Islamic scholars from their previous position as mere advisers of polytheistic rulers who engaged in mixed Islam to a place as the sole custodians of political power and the arbiters of social behavior.The jihad also altered the trade patterns of Hausaland by destroying the old centers of trade and setting up new ones.

The significance of the jihad for present-day Islam in Nigeria rests more with Shaykh ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad than with his mystically inclined brother Usuman, who initially inspired the jihad.The latter was a Qadiri Sufi given to visions and other liminal experiences greatly revered in his day.With the rise of modern Islamic fundamentalism, while he still enjoys reverence, he has been largely superseded.His brother ‘Abd Allah, the down-to-earth legalist, whose platform was not mysticism but strict adherence to the letter of the shari‘ah, has become the admired exemplar for the present generation of Islamists in northern Nigeria.

DanishmendsDanishmends(Danishmendids). Turkish dynasty in Asia Minor (1085-1173).Their main capital was Danishmand.The founder of the dynasty was Shams al-Din Ahmad (1085-1104), who during the course of the Seljuk invasion set up his own dominion to the west in Cappadocia, which was fortified by his son Gumushtegin (1104-1134).His successors maintained their position against the Crusaders until 1173 when their territories were absorbed into the empire of the Anatolian Seljuks.

The Danishmend dynasty was a Turcoman dynasty that ruled in north-central and eastern Anatolia in the 11th and 12th centuries. The Danishmendids were centered originally around Sivas, Tokat, and Niksar in central-northeastern Anatolia. They extended as far west as Ankara and Kastamonu for a time, and as far south as Malatya, which they captured in 1103. In early 12th century, Danishmends were rivals of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, which controlled much of the territory surrounding the Danishmend lands, and they fought extensively with the Crusaders.

The dynasty was established by Danishmend Gazi for whom historical information is rather scarce and was generally written long after his death. His title or name, Dānishmand or more accurately Dāneshmand, means "learned man" in Persian. As of 1134, Danishmend dynasty leaders also held the title Melik (the King) bestowed in recognition of their military successes by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mustarshid, although the Beys (Emirs) of Danishmend prior to 1134 may also be retrospectively referred to as Melik. Danishmend Gazi himself was alternatively called "Danishmend Taylu".

Danishmends established themselves in Anatolia in the aftermath of the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, in which the Seljuks defeated the Byzantine Empire and captured most of Anatolia. Gazi took advantage of the dynastic struggles of the Seljuks upon the death of the Sultan Suleyman I of Rûm in 1086 to establish his own dynasty in central Anatolia. The capital was likely first established in Amasia.

In 1100, Gazi's son, Emir Gazi Gümüshtigin. captured Bohemond I of Antioch, who remained in their captivity until 1103. A Seljuk-Danishmend alliance was also responsible for defeating the Crusade of 1101.

In 1116, the Danishmends helped Mesud I become the Seljuk sultan.

In 1130 Bohemond II of Antioch was killed in a battle with Gazi Gümüshtigin, after coming to the aid of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, which Gümüshtigin had invaded. Gümüshtigin died in 1134 and his son and successor Mehmed did not have the martial spirit of his father and grandfather. He is nevertheless considered the first builder of Kayseri as a Turkish city, despite his relatively short period of reign.

When Mehmed died in 1142, the Danishmend lands were divided between his two brothers, Melik Yaghibasan, who maintained the title of "Melik" and ruled from Sivas, and Ayn el-Devle, who ruled from Malatya.

In 1155, Seljuk Sultan Kilij Arslan II attacked Melik Yaghibasan, who sought help from Nur ad-Din, the Zengid emir of Mosul. However, when Nur ad-Din died in 1174, the Sivas lands were incorporated into the Sultanate. Four years later, the Malatya Danishmends were defeated and also incorporated, marking the end of Danishmend rule.

Danishmend Gazi, the founder of the dynasty, is the central figure of a posthumous romance epic, Danishmendnâme, in which he is mis-identified with an 8th century Arab warrior, Sidi Battal Gazi, and their exploits intertwined.

Virtually all Danishmend rulers entered the traditions of the Turkish folk literature, where they are all referred to as "Melik Gazi". Hence, there are "tombs of Melik Gazi", many of which are much visited shrines and belong in fact to different Danishmend rulers, in the cities of Niksar, Bünyan, Kırşehir, along the River Zamantı near the castle of the same name (Zamantı) and elsewhere in Anatolia. Melikgazi is also the name of one of the central districts of the city of Kayseri.The Danishmendid rulers include:

DanqaliDanqali (in plural form, Danaqil).Tribe on the western Red Sea coast, inhabiting a territory of extreme heat and desolation.The Danqali sultan of Aussa in northeastern Ethiopia is the only potentate in the region commanding more than sub-tribal or group prestige.

The term Danakil may refer to the Afar people and/or their language.

The Afar are an ethnic group in the Horn of Africa who reside principally in the Danakil Desert in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, as well as in Eritrea and Djibouti. The Afar are sometimes called Danakil, a name used specifically to refer to northern Afars, while southern Afars can be called Adel (also transliterated as Adal), similar to the former Adal Sultanate.

The Afar Danakil are the sister culture of the ancient Ta-Seti people. Whereas the Ta-Seti culture were amongst the founding branches of the eastern Bejaw or Beja People; the Ta-Antyu (Puntite) Utjenet Culture were progenitors of the Afari and Tigre cultures. The Land of Punt was of pivotal importance to the development of Egypt's pre-dynastic civilization and played a significant role throughout dynastic Egyptian history. The Utjenet and Ta-Seti cultures formed a single territory until Egypt's Second Intermediate Period when opposing cultures of Omo ethnic clans from further south and west pushed into central Sudan, separating the two branches of the Ta-Antyw. The Northern most branch would become the Ta-Seti whilst the Southernmost populations would become the Afar.

The Afar make up over a third of the population of Djibouti, and are one of the nine recognized ethnic divisions (kililoch) of Ethiopia. The Afar language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, is spoken by ethnic Afars in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, as well as eastern Eritrea and Djibouti. However, since the Afar are traditionally nomadic herders, they may be found further afield.

Although some Afar have migrated to cities and adopted an urban lifestyle, the majority have remained nomadic pastoralists, raising goats, sheep, and cattle in the desert. During the dry season, most move to and camp on the banks of the Awash River. Camels comprise the most common means of transportation as the Afar nomads move from watering hole to watering hole. With the arrival of the rainy season in November, most relocate to higher ground in order to avoid flooding and mosquitos.

An Afar tent house is known as an ari and is made of sticks covered with mats; beds of mats raised on sticks are used. The burra or camp consists of two or more ari, and is the responsibility of the women. The Afar supplement their diet of milk and meat by selling salt that they dig from the desert along with milk and animal hides at markets in Senbete and Bati.

Traditionally, the society is ruled by sultanates made up of several villages headed by a dardar.

Afar are organized into clan families, and into classes -- asaimara ('reds') who are the dominant class politically, and the adoimara ('whites') who are a working class.

Circumcision is practiced for both boys and girls. A boy is judged for his bravery upon bearing the pain of circumcision, and is then allowed to marry the girl of his choice, though preferably someone from his own ethnic group.

The Afar have a strong relationship with their environment and its wildlife, sharing land and resources with animals and doing them no harm. It is this tendency that is largely responsible for the preservation of the critically endangered African wild ass (Equus africanus), which has become extinct in more vulnerable environments.

The Afar culture features unique items of clothing.

These include:

* When married, women traditionally wear a black headscarf called a shash or mushal.* For men and women, the main article of clothing is the sanafil, a waistcloth. Women's are dyed brown (although today many women adopt multi-coloured sanafil) while men's are undyed.

The Afar began to convert to Islam in the 10th century after contact with Arab merchants from the Arabian Peninsula.

The earliest surviving written mention of the Afar was in the 13th century by the Arab writer Ibn Sa'id, who reported that they lived in the area from around the port of Suakin as far south as Mandeb, near Zeila. They are mentioned intermittently in Ethiopian records, first as helping Emperor Amda Seyon in a campaign beyond the Awash River, then over a century later when they assisted Emperor Baeda Maryam when he campaigned against their neighbors the Dobe'a. In the late 17th century, the Aussa Sultanate had emerged, which became the first amongst equals of the Afar rulers. Other important Afar sultanates include one based at Tadjura and another based at Rahaita.

The Afar Liberation Front was founded in 1975 after an unsuccessful rebellion led by the Afar sultan, Alimirah Hanfadhe. The Derg established the Autonomous Region of Assab (now called Aseb and located in Eritrea), although low level insurrection continued until the early 1990s. In Djibouti, a similar movement simmered throughout the 1980s, eventually culminating in the Afar Insurgency in 1991.

Danaqil see Danqali

DaqiqiDaqiqi (Abu Mansur Muhammad Daqiqi) (c. 935-980).Persian poet who composed the oldest known text of the Book of Kings, the national epic of Persia.

Abu Mansur Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Daqiqi Balkhi (Tusi), sometimes referred to as Daqiqi (also Dakiki or Daghighi), was an early Persian poet from Tus in Iran or in Balkh, currently one of the cities of Afghanistan.

Daqiqi supported the nationalistic tendencies in Persian literature and attempted to create an epic history of Iran which begins with the history of Zarathushtra and Gashtasb. Questions have been raised as to whether Daqiqi harbored some Zoroastrian beliefs, or was simply promoting Sassanian cultural trends in the wake of Samanid domination. A large couplet of his work was included in the epic Shahname (Book of Kings) by the Persian epic poet Ferdowsi. Daqiqi was murdered by his favorite slave.Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Ahmad Daqiqi Balkhi see DaqiqiAbu Mansur Muhammad Daqiqi see DaqiqiDaqiqi, Abu Mansur see DaqiqiBalkhi, Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Ahmad Daqiqi see DaqiqiDakiki see DaqiqiDaghighi see Daqiqi

DaraqutniDaraqutni (Abu’l-Hasan ‘Ali al-Daraqutni) (918-995). Scholar of Muslim tradition who is highly praised by his biographers.Abu’l-Hasan ‘Ali al-Daraqutni see Daraqutni

Dara ShikohDara Shikoh (Dara Shukoh) (March 20, 1615 - August 30, 1659).Mughal prince, general, Sufi and prolific writer.He was the eldest of four sons of Shah Jahan, and was Shah Jahan’s favorite.Dara was inclined toward religious eclecticism in the tradition of Akbar.He held discussions with exponents of Islam and Hinduism, studied deeply and wrote on problems of mysticism.He remained mostly in the capital while his brothers governed provinces.This allowed him a wide-ranging experience of administration but denied him familiarity with details that provincial administration provided.He had very little combat experience, which proved to be a setback during the War of Succession among the four brothers, from which Aurangzib emerged victorious.

The War of Succession in the last years of Shah Jahan’s reign (1627-1658) was long portrayed as an ideological conflict between religious liberalism represented by Dara and fanaticism personified in Aurangzib.Marked differences in their religious attitudes notwithstanding, a recent analysis of the alignment of their support has shown that it was evenly distributed across religious and sectarian divides.Dara’s failure was indeed a personal one arising from his inexperience with combat and inability to assess human character.Some of his most trusted men were Aurangzib’s sympathizers.Yet admiration for Dara at all levels was immense and his cruel execution greatly enhanced his popular image.

Dara Shikoh was the eldest son and the heir apparent of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. His name in Persian means "Darius the Magnificent". He was favored as a successor by his father and his sister Jahanara Begum, but was defeated by his younger brother Aurangzeb in a bitter struggle for the Mughal throne.

On September 6, 1657, the illness of emperor Shah Jahan triggered a desperate struggle for power among the four Mughal princes, though realistically only Dara and Aurangzeb had a chance of emerging victorious. Shah Shuja was the first to make his move, declaring himself emperor in Bengal and marching towards Agra while Murad Baksh allied himself with Aurangzeb.

Despite strong support from Shah Jahan, who had recovered enough from his illness to remain a strong factor in the struggle for supremacy, and the victory of his army led by his eldest son Sulaiman Shikoh over Shah Shuja in the battle of Bahadurpur on February 14, 1658, Dara was defeated by Aurangzeb and Murad at the battlefield of Samugarh, 13 kilometers from Agra on May 30, 1658. Subsequently, Aurangzeb took over Agra fort and deposed emperor Shah Jahan on June 8, 1658.

After the defeat, Dara retreated from Agra to Delhi and thence to Lahore. His next destination was Multan and then to Thatta (Sindh). From Sindh, he crossed the Rann of Kachchh and reached Kathiawar, where he met Shah Nawaz Khan, the governor of the province of Gujarat who opened the treasury to Dara and helped him to recruit a new army. He occupied Surat and advanced towards Ajmer. Foiled in his hopes of persuading the fickle but powerful Rajput feudatory, Maharaja Jaswant Singh of Marwar, to support his cause, Dara decided to make a stand and fight Aurangzeb's relentless pursuers.However, he was once again comprehensively routed in the battle of Deorai (near Ajmer) on March 11, 1659. After this defeat, Dara fled to Sindh and sought refuge under Malik Jiwan, a Baluch chieftain whose life had on more than one occasion been saved by Dara from the wrath of Shah Jahan. However, Malik betrayed Dara and turned him (and his second son Sipihr Shikoh) over to Aurangzeb's army on June 10, 1659.

Dara was brought to Delhi, placed on an elephant and paraded through the streets of the capital in chains. Dara's fate was decided by the political threat he posed as a prince popular with the common people.A convocation of nobles and clergy, called by Aurangzeb in response to the perceived danger of insurrection in Delhi, declared Dara a threat to the public peace and an apostate from Islam. He was murdered by assassins on the night of August 30, 1659.

Dara Shikoh is widely renowned as an enlightened paragon of the harmonious co-existence of heterodox traditions on the Indian subcontinent. He was an erudite champion of mystical religious speculation and a poetic diviner of syncretic cultural interaction among people of all faiths. This made him a heretic in the eyes of his orthodox brothers and a suspect eccentric in the view of many of the worldly power brokers swarming around the Mughal throne. Dara was a follower of Lahore's famous Qadiri Sufi saint Hazrat Mian Mir, whom he was introduced to by Mullah Shah Badakhshi (Mian Mir's spiritual disciple and successor) and who was so widely respected among all communities that he was invited to lay the foundation stone of the Golden Temple in Amritsar by the Sikhs. Dara subsequently developed a friendship with the seventh Sikh Guru, Guru Har Rai. Dara devoted much effort towards finding a common mystical language between Islam and Hinduism. Towards this goal he completed the translation of 50 Upanishads from its original Sanskrit into Persian in 1657 so it could be read by Muslim scholars. His translation is often called Sirr-e-Akbar (The Greatest Mystery), where he states boldly, in the Introduction, his speculative hypothesis that the work referred to in the Qur'an as the "Kitab al-maknun" or the hidden book is none other than the Upanishads. His most famous work, Majma ul-Bahrain ("The Mingling of the Two Seas"), was also devoted to a revelation of the mystical and pluralistic affinities between Sufic and Vedantic speculation.

The library established by Dara Shikoh still exists on the grounds of Indraprastha University, Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, and is now run as a museum by Archeological Survey of India after being renovated.

Dara Shikoh was also a patron of fine arts, music and dancing, a trait frowned upon by his sibling Aurangzeb. In fact many of his paintings are quite detailed and compare well to a professional artist of his time. The 'Dara Shikoh album' is a collection of paintings and calligraphy assembled from the 1630s until his death. It was presented to his wife Nadira Banu in 1641-42 and remained with her until her death after which the album was taken into the royal library and the inscriptions connecting it with Dara Shikoh were deliberately erased. However, not everything was vandalized and many calligraphy scripts and paintings still bear his mark.

Dara Shikoh is also credited with the commissioning of several exquisite, still extant, examples of Mughal architecture - among them the tomb of his wife Nadira Banu in Lahore, the tomb of Hazrat Mian Mir also in Lahore, the Dara Shikoh Library in Delhi, the Akhun Mullah Shah Mosque in Srinagar in Kashmir and the Pari Mahal garden palace (also in Srinagar in Kashmir).

Dara Shukoh see Dara Shikoh

DaraziDarazi (Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Darazi) (Shaykh Darazi). One of the founders of the Druze religion.He was a Syrian who lived in the eleventh century.He is said to have been the first to proclaim the divinity of the Fatimid al-Hakim bi-Am

Muhammad bin Ismail Nashtakin ad-Darazi was a 11th century Ismaili preacher and early leader of the Druze faith who was labeled a heretic and sexual deviant in 1016 and subsequently executed by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Nashtakin, a Turk, was born in Bukhara and publicly proclaimed the divinity of Caliph al-Hakim.

Little information is known about the early life of Darazi.According to most sources, he was one of the early preachers of the Druze faith and enlisted a large number of adherents. However, he was later considered a renegade and is usually described by the Druze as following the traits of satan.

Since the number of his followers grew, he became obsessed with the leadership and gave himself the title “The Sword of the Faith”. Such attitude led to disputes between him and Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad, who disliked his behavior. Darazi argued that he should be the leader of the Da’wa rather than Hamza ibn Ali and gave himself the title “Lord of the Guides”, because Caliph al-Hakim referred to Hamza as “Guide of the Consented”.

By 1018, Darazi had around him partisans - "Darazites" - who believed that universal reason became incarnated in Adam at the beginning of the world, passed from him into prophets, then into Ali and hence into his descendants, the Fatimid Caliphs. Darazi wrote a book to develop this doctrine. He read his book in the principle mosque in Cairo, which caused riots and protests against his claims and many of his followers were killed. Hamza ibn Ali refuted his ideology calling him "the insolent one and Satan". The controversy created by Darazi led Caliph al-Hakim to suspend the Druze da'wa in 1018.

In an attempt to gain the support of al-Hakim, Darazi started preaching that al-Hakim and his ancestors were the incarnation of God.

It is believed that Darazi allowed wine, forbidden marriages and taught metempsychosis although it has argued that his actions might have been exaggerated by the early historians and polemicists.

An inherently modest man, al-Hakim did not believe that he was God, and felt Darazi was trying to depict himself as a new prophet. Al-Hakim preferred Hamza ibn 'Ali ibn Ahmad over Darazi and Darazi was executed in 1018, leaving Hamza the sole leader of the new faith.

Even though the Druze do not consider ad-Darazi founder of their faith - in fact, they refer to him as their "first heretic" - rival Muslim groups purposely attached the name of the controversial preacher to the new sect and it has stuck with them ever since.Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Darazi see DaraziShaykh Darazi see DaraziMuhammad bin Ismail Nas see Darazi

DardDard (Sayyid Khvaja Mir Dard) (1721-1785). Along with Sauda and Mir, was part of the first generation of great Urdu poets of Delhi.Born into a well-known Sufi family, Dard studied theology, literature, and music.At the age of thirty-nine, he succeeded his father as head of a small Sufi order.His poetry, written in Urdu and Persian, is markedly intellectual as well as passionately mystical.Dard, his pen name, means “pain.”

Khwaja Mir Dard is one of the three major poets of the Delhi School—the other two being Mir Taqi Mir and 'Sauda'—who could be called the pillars of the classical Urdu ghazal.

Dard was first and foremost a mystic, a prominent member of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi order, and the head of the Muhammadi path (tariqah muhammadiyah, a Mujaddidi offshoot) in Delhi. He regarded the phenomenal world as a veil of the eternal Reality, and this life as a term of exile from our real home. Dard inherited his mystical temperament from his father, Khwaja Muhammad Nasir Andalib, who was a mystic saint and a poet, and the founder of the Muhammadi path.

Dard received his education in an informal way at home, and in the company of the learned, acquiring in due course a command of Arabic and Persian. He also developed a deep love of music, possibly, through his association with singers and qawaals who frequented his father's house. He renounced earthly pleasures at the young age of 28, and led a life of piety and humility.

Dard's Persian prose works are extensive, consisting of the Ilm ul Kitab, a 600+ page metaphysical work on the philosophy of the Muhammadi path, and the Chahar Risalat, collections of more than a thousand mystical aphorisms and sayings.

Sunan al-Darimi or Musnad al-Darimi by ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Darimi is a Hadith collection considered by Sunnis to be among the Nine: the Six major Hadith collections, Al-Muwatta, Musnad of Imam Ahmed, and Sunan al-Darimi.

Despite its title "Musnad", it is not set per narrator like the Musnads of Tayalisi or Ibn Hanbal. It is arranged by topic, like the Sunan of Ibn Maja.

DarjiniDarjini (Abu’l-‘Abbas al-Darjini). Ibadi jurist, poet and historian of the thirteenth century.He was the author of a historical and biographical work on the Ibadis.

DarweeshDarweesh (Sheikh Sayed Darweesh) (1891-1923).Key figure in twentieth century Egyptian classical song.At 25, Darweesh was a traveling actor fallen on hard times.At 30, he was hailed as the father of the new Egyptian Arab music, and a hero of the renaissance.He rose to fame with his controversial “innovation” musical movement of the 1910s and 1920s, in which he blended western instruments and harmony with forgotten Arab musical forms and Egyptian folklore.More importantly, he wrote songs for the Egyptian people:dedications for the tradesmen, operettas for the hashish dealers, and daring anti-British nationalistic songs.Indeed, one of his songs, Bilaadi Bilaadi – “My Country, My Country” -- ultimately became the Egyptian national anthem.

After a composing career of just seven years, Darweesh died of a cocaine overdose at the age of 32.He was buried in the Garden of the Immortals in Alexandria.

Sayyid Darwîsh's life is one of those lightning trajectories in the history of music, the memory and the influence of which go much beyond the actual frame of a musical production. He was to die at the dawn of a striking career, almost ignored by the musical milieu in his lifetime and mythified after his death. In the modern Arab historiography of music. Sayyid Darwîsh has become an icon symbolizing Progress. Modernity, and the shift from "Oriental music", an elitist music made for Pachas and still bathing in the original ottoman matrix, to "Egyptian music", the first figuralist expression of a peoples' soul and their nationalist demands.

Sayyid Darwîsh was born in the popular quarter of Kôm ed-dikka in Alexandria. Egypt, and trained in his youth to be a munshid (cantor). He worked as a bricklayer in order to support his family.His legend has it that the manager of a theatrical troupe overheard him singing for his fellows and hired him on the spot. While touring in Syria, he had the opportunity to gain a musical education, short of finding success. He returned to Egypt before the beginning of the Great War, and won limited recognition by singing in the cafés and on various stages the learned repertoire of the great composers of the 19th century of the Christian calendar, to which he added adwâr and muviashshahât of his own. In spite of the cleverness of his compositions, he did not to find public favor, paling in comparison to such stars of his time as Sâlih 'Abd al-Hayy or Zakî Murâd.

1918 was a turning point in his life. After too many failures in singing cafés, he decided to follow the path of Shaykh Salama Higâzî. the pioneer of Arabic lyric theater and launched a career on the stage. He settled in Cairo and got acquainted with the main companies,

particularly Nagîb al-Rîhanî's (1891-1949), for whom he composed seven operettas. This gifted comedian had invented, with the playwright and poet Badî' Khayrî, the laughable character of Kish Kish Bey, a rich provincial mayor squandering his fortune in Cairo with ill-reputed women... The apparition of social matters and the allusions to the political situation of colonial Egypt (the 1919 "revolution") were to boost the success of the trio's operettas, such as "al-'Ashara al-Tayyiba" (The Ten of Diamonds, 1920) a nationalistic adaptation of 'Blubeard". Sayyid Darvîsh also worked for Rihânî's rival troupe, 'Alî al-Kassâr's, and eventually collaborated with the Queen of Stages, singer and actress Munîra al-Mahdiyya (1884-1965), for whom he composed comical operettas such as "Kollaha yomên" (It will just take two days, 1920) and started an opera, "Cleopatra and Mark-Anthony", which was played in 1927 with Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhâb in the leading role.

In the early twenties, all the companies sought his help. He decided to start his own company, acting at last on stage in a lead part . His two creations "Shahwazâd' and "al-Barûka" were not as successful as planned, and he was forced to compose again for other companies from 1922 until his death on September 15, 1923.

Sheikh Sayed Darweesh see DarweeshSayed Darweesh see Darweesh

Darwish, MahmoudDarwish, Mahmoud (Mahmoud Darwish) (March 15, 1941 - August 9, 2008).Palestinian poet who was internationally recognized for his poetry evoking a strong affection for a lost homeland.Darwish became a compelling voice for the Palestinian struggle for independence.

Darwish was born into a landowning Sunni Muslim family in the village of Barwa (al-Birwa) near Akko (Acre), then in the British Mandate of Palestine, now Western Galilee.He was the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish.His father was a Muslim landowner.His mother was illiterate, but his grandfather taught him to read.After the establishment of the State of Israel, the family fled to Lebanon first in Jezzin and then in Damour.A year later, they returned to the Acre area, which is now part of Israel, and settled in Deir al-Asad (Dayru al-Assad).In 1948, Darwish’s family was forced to leave their home town after it was declared to be part of the new state of Israel.Darwish attended high school in Kafr Yasif, two kilometers north of Jadeidi.He eventually moved to Haifa.He published his first book of poetry, Asafir bila ajniha, at the age of nineteen.

Darwish left Israel in the early 1970s to study in the Soviet Union and was stripped of Israeli citizenship.He attended the University of Moscow for one year, before moving to Egypt and Lebanon.In 1972, Darwish moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where he started working for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), as editor of the monthly Shu’un Filistiniyya (Palestinian Affairs).In 1975, Darwish was appointed director of the PLO Research Center and, in 1982, after the PLO was expelled from Beirut following the Israeli invasion, Darwish settled on Cyprus.Later in 1982, Darwish received the Ibn Sina Prize, followed by, in 1983, the Lenin Peace Prize.

In 1987, Darwish was elected to the PLO executive committee.However, in 1993, Darwish resigned from this position because of his opposition to the Oslo Agreement.In 1995, Darwish attended the funeral of his colleague, Emile Habibi.During the visit, he received a permit from the Israeli authorities to remain in Israel for four days.Darwish was finally allowed to return to live in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 1995.

Darwish was twice married and divorced.His first wife was the writer Rana Kabbani.In the mid-1980s, he married an Egyptian translator, Hayat Heeni.He had no children.Darwish had a history of heart problems.After a heart attack in 1984, he underwent heart surgery.In 1998, he was operated on again.His last return visit to Israel was on July 15, 2007 to attend a poetry recital at Mount Carmel Auditorium.At that time, he criticized the factional violence between Fatah and Hamas as a "suicide attempt in the streets."

Darwish died on August 9, 2008, three days after heart surgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas.

Darwish published over thirty volumes of poetry and eight books of prose.In 1960, Darwish published his first book of poetry entitled Asafir bila ajniha (Birds Without Wings). This was followed by Awraq Al-Zaytun (Olive Leaves) in 1964 and Ashiq min filastin (Lover from Palestine) in 1966.In 1995, Darwish published another notable book of poetry entitled Limaza tarakt al-hissan wahidan (Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?).

The Arabic-English Lexicon is a 19th-century Arabic dictionary compiled by the British Orientalist Edward William Lane. Writing in 1998, a critic says, "Every serious classical Arabic scholar, for the last hundred years and more, has been indebted to Lane's work [the Lexicon]."

In 1842, Lane, who had already won fame as an Arabist for his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians and his version of the One Thousand and One Nights, received a sponsorship from Lord Prudhoe, later Duke of Northumberland, to compile an Arabic-English dictionary.

Lane set to work at once, making his third voyage to Cairo to collect materials in the same year. Since the Muslim scholars there were reluctant to loan manuscripts to Lane, the acquisition of materials was commissioned to Ibrahim Al-Dasuqi (1811-1883), a graduate of Azhar and a teacher in Boulaq. In order to collect and collate the materials, Lane stayed in Cairo for seven years, working arduously with little rest and recreation. The acquisition of materials, which took 13 years, was left in the hands of Al-Dasuqi when Lane returned to England in 1849.

Back to England, Lane continued to work on the dictionary with zeal, complaining that he was so used to the cursive calligraphy of his Arabic manuscripts that the Western print strained his eyes. He had arrived at the letter Qāf, the 21st letter of the Arabic alphabet, when he died in 1876.

The lexicon is based on many medieval Arabic dictionaries, chiefly the Taj al-ʿArus ("Crown of the Bride") by al-Zabidi produced in the 19th century. In total, 112 sources are cited in the work. Lane also read widely in order to provide examples for the entries.

The lexicon was designed to consist of two books: one for the common, classical words, another for the rare ones. Part I of the First Book came out in 1863; Part II in 1865; Part III in 1867; Part IV and V in 1872. A total of 2,219 pages were proofread by Lane himself. Lane's great-nephew Stanley Lane-Poole published Part VI to Part VIII including a supplement from 1877-1893, using Lane's incomplete notes left behind him. These parts are sketchy and full of lacunae. In total, the First Book comprises 3,064 pages. Nothing has come out of the planned Second Book. Thus the work has never been completed.[8]

Lane's work focuses on classical vocabulary, thus later scholars found it necessary to compile supplements to the work for post-classical usage, such as the Supplément aux dictionaires arabes (1881; 2nd ed., 1927) by the Dutch Arabist Reinhart Dozy; also, the Wörterbuch der klassischen arabischen Sprache, being published from 1970 onwards by the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, starts from Kāf, thus supplementing Lane's work in effect.

The first draft of the lexicon, as well as the whole Taj al-ʿArus copied by Al-Dasuqi for Lane in 24 volumes, are now preserved in the British Library.

al-Sayyid Ibrahim ibn Ibrahim al-Dasuqi see Dasuqi

Daud Beureu’eh, MohammedDaud Beureu’eh, Mohammed (Mohammed Daud Beureu’eh) (1909-1978).Prime minister of Afghanistan (r. 1953-1963).Born in Kabul, Daud was the cousin and brother-in-law of Aghanistan’s last king, Zahir Shah.He studied in France from 1921 to 1930 and in 1953 was appointed the country’s prime minister.He ruled the country until 1963, dominating the king in the process.Daud pushed for rapid modernization of Afghanistan and pursued irredentist claims against Pakistan, supporting ethnic Pakhtuns against Islamabad.Zahir Shah dismissed Daud in 1963 because of differences over policy toward Pakistan.Daud remained bitter and waited for an opportunity to remove the king.With support from several young officers, he overthrew the monarchy on July 17, 1973.He ruled the country until April 1978, when he was overthrown and killed in a Communist coup.Mohammed Daud Beureu’eh see Daud Beureu’eh, Mohammed

Daud Beureu’eh, MuhammadDaud Beureu’eh, Muhammad (Muhammad Daud Beureu’eh) (b. September 17, 1899, Beureu'eh, regencies of Pidie Aceh - d. June 10, 1987, Aceh).Islamic leader of Aceh (northern Sumatra).Educated at traditional Islamic schools in his native Pidie region of Aceh, Tunku Daud Beureu’eh nevertheless championed more modern methods of teaching and organization, notably as president of the All-Aceh Association of Ulama (PUSA) in 1939-1942.PUSA became a vehicle for Acehnese protest against the ruling class, the uleebalang, and aided an anti-Dutch revolt on the eve of the Japanese occupation.Daud remained the most influential Acehnese ulama during the revolutionary destruction of uleebalang authority (December 1945), and in 1947 he was named military governor of Aceh by the republic.He did not accept the merger of Aceh into a North Sumatra province (1950), and in September 1953 he led a rebellion against Jakarta, proclaiming Aceh part of Kartosuwirjo’s Negara Islam Indonesia.He surrendered in 1962, after Aceh was recognized as an autonomous region.

DavidDavid (in Arabic, Dawudor Da’ud).The biblical David is mentioned in several places in the Qur’an.Muslim tradition stresses his zeal in prayer, in fasting, and his gift in singing psalms.David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Bible. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet (he is traditionally credited with the authorship of many of the Psalms).

The biblical chronology sets his life c.1037–970 B.C.T., his reign over Judah c.1007–1000 B.C.T., and his reign over the united Kingdom of Israel c.1000–970 B.C.T.. The Books of Samuel are the primary source of information on his life and reign; there is little archaeological evidence to confirm the Bible's picture of David (although the Tel Dan stele records the existence in the mid-9th century of a Judean royal dynasty called the "House of David"), but his story has been of immense importance to subsequent Jewish and Christian culture.

Dawud see DavidDa’ud see David

DawasirDawasir (al-Dawasir)(in singular, Dawsari). Name of a large tribe in central Arabia.About 1689, they forced the Al Sabah and the Al Khalifa to migrate to the Persian Gulf, where the latter in time became the rulers of Kuwait and Bahrain.

The al Dawasir is an Arabian bedouin tribe divided into clans and families. The word Dawasir is plural for Dossari (which is also spelled Dosary, Dossary, Dowsary, Doseri, Dosari, Dosseri, Dossery, Dossari, etc.)

The tribe gave its name to the famous valley in Najd, Wadi al-Dawasir (The Valley of al-Dawasir), and spread to various parts of the Middle East.

The tribe also either gave birth or helped the growth of cities like: al-Dammam, al-Khobar, al-Ahsa, al-Zubara, Zallaq and Budaiya (island of Bahrain) and Kuwait. They were also inhabitants of the Juzur Hawar, a fact that helped Bahrain to win (on March 16, 2001) its dispute over the archipelago with Qatar.

al-Dawasir see DawasirDawsari see Dawasir

Dawlat Giray IDawlat Giray I. Khan of the Crimea (r.1551-1577).He was supported by the Ottoman sultan against Russia.

DawudDawud (d. 1582).Ruler of the Songhay Empire (r.1549-1582).Dawud was the last of the sons of the famous Askia Muhammad to rule over Songhay.Dawud was the most powerful of his brother kings.He ascended the throne peacefully after the death of his brother Ishaq I.He set about reconquering parts of the empire which had broken away since the time of his father’s deposition (1528).Dawud’s most notable campaigns were against the old Mali empire and the Tuareg.He also fought the Mossi, although they continued to evade subjugation by the Sudanic empires.According to the Ta’rikh al-Fattash, he was a devout Muslim who studied the Qur’an, built mosques and libraries, and gave alms generously.He did not, however, make the pilgrimage to Mecca, and showed conspicuous deference to traditional beliefs.He died peacefuly in 1582 and was succeeded by his son, Muhammad II.

Dawud al-FataniDawud al-Fatani. Malay author from Patani, in Thailand, of the nineteenth century.He wrote popular tracts and extensive handbooks on Shafi‘i law, theology and orthodox mysticism.

Dawud ibn KhalafDawud ibn Khalaf (d.884). Imam of the school of the Zahiriyya (Dawudiyya).The school is hostile to human reasoning and relies exclusively on the Qur’an and the hadith.

DawudpotrasDawudpotras.Dynasty which ruled at Bahawalpur in Pakistan (r.1723-1956).In 1956, Bahawalpur was merged with West Pakistan.

DeccaniDeccani. The Deccan Plateau in south central India coincides with what used to be the princely state of Hyderabad, until 1948 ruled by the Sunni Muslim dynasty of Asaf Jahs (the nizams of Hyderabad).Its Muslim inhabitants, now citizens of the states of Andhra Pradesh, Mysore, and Maharashtra, share to a great extent a common and distinctive heritage and culture.

Muslims have always been a small minority of the population -- never more than twelve percent.However, from the fourteenth century until 1948, they ruled the Deccan.Since its very beginning, Muslim rule in the Deccan largely depended on the immigration of Muslims from other Islamic countries.Local converts as well as settlers from north India, who called themselves Deccanis, competed with foreigners, soldiers, learned men and adventurers from Central Asia, Iran and their successors at Bijapur, Bidar, Berar, Ahmadnagar and Golconda.The more recent Muslim immigrants from north India are called “Hindustanis.”Large groups of Pushtun served in the nizam’s army and police force.The Deccan also has its share of Gujarati Memons, Khojas and Bohras as well as Ahmadis and Wahhabis.

Those Arabs who first arrived in the eighteenth century to act as bodyguards for local rulers constituted a unique settlement.Their jemadars (military chiefs) were not only formidable soldiers but also prosperous moneylenders who maintained their own courts of justice and jails for defaulting debtors.Today pure Arabs (usul) are rare.Their descendants, offsprings of mixed marriage, termed mawalud, form a community which maintains its identity in dress, customs and language (now a corrupted form of Arabic).These Muslim groups have generally become an integral part of the region’s Muslim urban communities in such cities as Gulbarga, Nizamabad and Hyderabad, where they constitute almost 37 percent of the cities’ populations.

As a predominantly urban community, the Muslims constituted the ruling class and dominated government and military services.They were also found in trade and commerce.The lower Muslim class was employed by the wealthy landlords (jagirdar) in Hyderabad.Under the last resident nizam, Osman Ali Khan (1911-1948), Muslim dominance in the services and the army increased dramatically.

In 1948, the newly independent government of India forcibly removed the Muslim dynasty of Asaf Jahs.This event had a significant effect on the political, cultural and socioeconomic condition of the Deccani Muslims.A considerable number of civil servants, politicians, landlords and members of the commercial class emigrated to Pakistan.Those who stayed faced the necessity of adjusting to radically changed circumstances.The Muslims, used to thinking of themselves as rulers of the state, now had to learn how to be a minority under a Hindu majority government.

The political revolution that followed the invasion of Hyderabad by Indian troops greatly deprived the middle and lower class Muslims of their sources of patronage of power.The abolition of the jagirdars by the Hyderabad Military Government in 1949 eliminated the landlords.Many of these families, totallly unprepared for this development, were plunged into destitution and despair.